An autonomous vehicle (AV) is a vehicle that is capable of sensing its environment and navigating with little or no user input. It does so by employing sensing devices such as radar, lidar, image sensors, and the like. Autonomous vehicles further use information from global positioning systems (GPS) technology, navigation systems, vehicle-to-vehicle communication, vehicle-to-infrastructure technology, and/or drive-by-wire systems to navigate the vehicle.
While recent years have seen significant advancements in AVs, such systems might still be improved in a number of respects. For example, it would be advantageous for AVs to be capable of determining the actual dimensions of vehicles that it encounters during operation. That is, while AVs are equipped with advanced sensor systems that can characterize, in a number of ways, the observed dimensions of vehicle and other objects in the vicinity (e.g., vehicles seen from the side, from the front, etc.), the actual dimensions of those objects are not always derivable, due in part to the varying orientation of the observed vehicle from the viewpoint of the sensors.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide systems and methods that are capable of more accurately determining the actual dimensions of a vehicle observed by sensor systems. Furthermore, other desirable features and characteristics of the present invention will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and the foregoing technical field and background.